The possibility of nanotechnology's industrialization is likely to become a hot issue at this year's 5th International Nanotech Symposium & Exhibition, or NANO Korea 2007 (www.nanokorea.or.kr). The exhibition and conference will be held at KINTEX in Goyang from August 29th to 31st.
Han Min-koo, professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of Seoul National University, expressed such an opinion during an exclusive interview with the Korea IT Times. He serves now concurrently as a co-chair of this forthcoming NANO Korea 2007.
Professor Han commented on the latest trends in nanotechnology by saying: "Nanoelectronics' industrialization, material and chemical industrialization, and efforts to apply nanotechnology to energy and the environment form the main current of the latest nanotechnology industry."
In a time when many overseas nanotechnology exhibitions and symposiums disappear around the globe, Han said that the significance of NANO Korea 2007 lies in that it wishes aid domestic researchers and publicize Korea's nanotechnology power in the light of the fact that our technology is being lowly assessed.
The Professor assessed the nanotechnology industry positively, pointing out that governmental investment in the field of nanotechnology has been steadily on the rise with 105.2 billion won (US$113.5 million) in 2001, 248 billion won (US$268 million) in 2004 and 278.8 billion won (US$300.8 million) in 2006.
In the SCI Index, which measures the number of scientific papers in a specific field, Korea has maintained the fifth position globally with 1,845 papers. In 2001 it lay at the eighth position with 408 papers submitted, and in 2004 it had risen to the sixth position with 1,719 papers submitted, according to Han.
Our country's US registration patent numbers too have been continuously on the rise with 354 patents in 2005, bringing us to the third position, in comparison with the sixth position in 2001 with only 80 patents applied.
As regarding research and development investment amounts, a total of 193.8 billion won (US$209.2 million) was invested. The investment ratios in various fields were 32.3% in nanotechnology materials, 27.3% in nanotechnology processes, and 12.5% in nanobiotechnology.
He anticipated that there will be no big problem in manpower in the future since each university's nanotechnology related department and student numbers are continuously on the rise. In addition, internationally- competitive nanotechnology manpower are being nurtured through the second stage of the Brain Korea 21 project, and corporate demand-centered nano-information technology manpower nurturing system construction and manpower nurturing are being attained.
On the subject of infrastructure construction, Professor Han introduced this idea: "A pan-ministerial movement to create a synthetic management system for the construction, differentiation, and conection of nanotechnology-related infrastructure such as nanotechnology composite fabrication centers is being undertaken."
In the hopes of accelerating technology security in order to become one of the three advanced nanotechnology countries, associated ministries including MOST, MOCIE and MIC are taking the following actions, according to Han.
The first priority is to enlarge support for convergence technology development such as information technology, biotechnology and environmental technology which are grafted onto nanotechnology.
The second priority is to increase nanotechnology related infrastructure utilization and to nurture systematic special manpower.
The third priority is to facilitate the core source technology's continuous security and early industrialization.
And fourthly, related ministries are expected to beef up standardization for the purpose of boosting international competitiveness, social influence and technological influence assessment, he said.
Korea aims to become one of the three most advanced nanotechnology countries by 2015 by securing 30 high technology items in the global market and occupying 20% of world nanotechnology industry with nanotechnology application product development worth US$500 billion, according to the second term Nanotechnology Composite Development Plan.
